Maine agriculture officials said Wednesday they are making steady progress identifying farms tainted with PFAS and that contamination levels have typically been lower as the scope of the investigation expands.
Nancy McBrady, deputy commissioner at the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, told state lawmakers on Wednesday that 82 farms so far have been found to have varying levels of PFAS contamination in their soil, water or both. That is a downward revision from the 111 farms that the department reported last week due to what McBrady said was a double-counting error.
The state is less than halfway through its investigation of farms that are at higher risk of contamination because they were potentially fertilized with sludge contaminated with the so-called "forever chemicals." The agency has completed testing on all but a handful of the highest-risk sites and is now well into testing the much larger number of farms with some risk of contamination, according to an annual report to the Legislature.
"What we have seen since then and is being backed up by the data is that while we are finding farms with PFAS contamination as we move out into these tiers, those levels of contamination are lower and that provides for options for these farms," McBrady told members of the Legislature's Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
PFAS, which is short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of chemical compounds that have been used for decades because of their ability to create coatings that repel grease, water and other substances. They are common in nonstick cookware, grease-resistant food packaging, waterproof fabrics, stain-resistant carpeting, firefighting foams and even some cosmetics.
But the durable chemical bonds that make them so useful in consumer products also mean they do not break down easily in the environment or the body, hence the nickname "forever chemicals." And a growing number of types of PFAS have been linked to health issues such as cancer, low birth weight, high cholesterol and hormone disruption.
High levels of PFAS ended up in some sludge spread on farm fields in Maine because it contained waste from papermills that used PFAS. Because the state licensed the sludge-spreading program for years, Maine lawmakers and state officials have earmarked tens of millions of dollars to investigate potentially contaminated sites and install water treatment systems in homes with contaminated wells.
McBrady told lawmakers that five farms of the 82 have shut down and three have significantly scaled back operations. But more than 50 farms are in what McBrady called a "monitoring stage" where they continue to sell safe products with help from the department.
"They have had to make adjustments," she said. "It has been stressful. They had to go through a lot to get to that place. But fortunately due to what is happening at their farms and the levels of contamination, they are able to move forward."
McBrady also pointed out that those 82 cases represent just 1% of farms in the state.
"So we are confident that the vast majority of our farms are safe and that we are going to do all that we can for those that are found to have contamination so that they can remain viable," McBrady said.
Lawmakers face some potentially difficult financial decisions, however, due to the rising costs of testing more site and installing water treatment systems in homes with contaminated wells.
Maine has established a total safety threshold of 20 parts per trillion in drinking water for several well-known types of PFAS. But federal regulators under the Biden administration recently published a standard of 4 parts per trillion. If Maine were to adopt that lower threshold, it would significantly increase the number of homes that require water filtration systems, which cost the state at least $3,500 to install plus $5,000 a year for regular testing and filter replacement.
Melanie Loyzim, commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, told committee members that her office receives calls daily from citizens who are concerned about their health because potential PFAS contamination. Loyzim said some of those callers are "in a panic" because their wells tested at 4 parts per trillion and expect the department to install filtration systems at their homes.
"It is a very difficult message to deliver to those people that there other people in the state who have much higher concentrations of PFAS in their wells or that may have much higher concentrations but we haven't found them yet," Loyzim said. "And so we find ourselves saying 'no' to your constituents on a regular basis."
So Loyzim said the department is looking for guidance from the Legislature about how to proceed, with the understanding that providing water filtration to homes with lower-level contamination will carry a hefty price tag for the state.
